Year's worth of detective work results in numerous elder abuse charges
After a year's worth of detective work, a husband and wife running several assisted living facilities without the proper licensing or staffing were arrested last week, culminating the investigation into their illegal operation.
Marie Tarah Carenan, 56, and Ronald Pack, 60, of Kissimmee were arrested June 24 and charged with scheme to defraud, aggravated elder abuse, elder neglect, elder exploitation and welfare fraud.
"And a lot more charges are coming," Osceola County Sheriff Chris Blackmon said. "We found more evidence when we got in there.”
The two remain held in the Osceola County Jail without bond. They made initial appearances in front of a judge on Thursday, and appeared in court again Monday, where they entered written pleas of not guilty.
Court records show Pack, who was also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest without violence when deputies were forced to take him to the ground to get him into custody during his arrest, has been scheduled for a July 29 arraignment, while Carenan waived her arraignment (formal reading of charges by a judge) and has been scheduled for the Aug. 17 trial docket with an Aug. 4 pretrial hearing.
According to police, neither of them has ever possessed a state license to run an Assisted Living Facility. After a 911 call to one of the facilities they were running through their companies, Cherish Home Care and Cherish Independent Living, an Osceola County deputy, later promoted to detective, began work with a state-wide prosecutor and Polk County deputies along with state agencies that regulate Assisted Living Facilities to serve their illegal operation amidst potential abuse.
"It's a sad day in Osceola County, but it's also a good day because we're putting some people in jail who have been exploiting some of our residents," Blackmon said. "The key lead on this first saw this as a patrol deputy, and when he moved into our Criminal Investigations Division brought this case with him, which has been going on for over a year."
According to the arrest report, on May 29, 2025 five residents from three of the Kissimmee locations were re-located to a licensed facility after a court order acknowledged they “lack the capacity to consent to services and are vulnerable adults.”
The investigating detective noted that there were locks on windows, doors, refrigerators and other cabinets that stored food for the residents — which deputies serving warrants on two of the locations in Osceola County found Wednesday morning —and there were no lifesaving equipment, fire extinguishers or licensed nurses as required for some of the bed-ridden residents. Over the course of the rest of the year, Det. Mangual Barbosa’s investigation led to trips to places like Port Orange and Miami to speak with relatives of residents living in the homes.
OCSO deputies, detectives and SWAT members served three warrants Wednesday morning: one at the Bellalago home of the two suspects, where they were taken into custody, and at homes on Gillingham Court and Catalina Court in Kissimmee. Those homes each had just one care giver present despite having nine residents at the Gillingham home and eight at the Catalina home, with some bed-ridden with no licensed nurse for them on site. Members of the Department of Children and Families and the State Attorney's Office were also on hand.
Pack and Carenan’ 27-page arrest report obtained by the News-Gazette this week shows deputies also made service calls homes on Ashburton Way and Louvre Court and spoke to residents who claimed to have been mistreated and denied medical attention. The affidavit also details how Cherish Independent Living and Cherish Home Care, active businesses but lacking any state licenses needed to operate the homes, had been receiving payments from families of residents as well as medical and mental health facilities like Park Place Behavioral and Universal Behavioral for rent payments for the homes, despite the company not having full state licensing.
Of a total of nine homes across Osceola and Polk counties, three others were closed down by the defendants during the year-long investigation, Blackmon said.
The state's Department of Children and Families, which oversees such facilities, has been brought in to help relocate the remaining residents to licensed facilities. Montes said DCF was working to relocate 38 residents, who are elderly or of diminished mental capacity, from the facilities.
"And many of them thanked us for getting them out of there," she said.
Blackmon said he encourages anyone that knows of an unlicensed facility to contact law enforcement to investigate.
"The best protection for your loved ones is to do careful research. Please verify them," he said. "Call us if you need to about them. Request documentation, and go unannounced and take a good look at what you see."
